Authors: Lisa Lace
"They wouldn't transport him in here if he were dead," Mana said as she knelt beside me. Jared hadn't woken up.
I hadn't realized that I had been speaking out loud.
She was examining him, finding his pulse and checking other vital signs. "Still unconscious but vital signs are good. We just have to wait for him to come around."
Waiting. More waiting. I hated waiting.
After the longest hour of my life, he started to stir. I saw his body twitch, and then he groaned and rolled over.
"Dar?" I was beside him in an instant, my hand on his arm. "Are you okay? What happened?"
He didn't say anything but started coughing. Finally, he opened his eyes. Then he tried to sit up, and Mana and I helped him. Jared was somehow still sleeping.
"Dar?" I said, my eyes full of tears. "Can you talk? Are you all right? Will you tell us what happened to you?"
He stared at me for a long moment.
My blood ran cold. There was no recognition in his eyes, only confusion.
"Dar? Do you know where you are? Do you..." I hesitated, not wanting to ask. "Do you know who I am?"
He looked at me for an extended time without saying anything. Then he shook his head no.
I lost all strength in my legs, and I sat down.
"Kenna, he might be suffering trauma right now. Maybe he's had a brain injury from hitting his head."
I closed my eyes, holding my stomach. I felt sick. He was as good as dead. He was no longer the man I loved. Just like that, he had been taken away from me. I bit my lip and tried not to cry. Jared finally woke up and came over.
"Mana, you know he's been mind-wiped. Don't try to pretend to spare me."
For the first time, I saw Mana get angry with me.
"Excuse me, you little upstart bitch. I've known him my whole life. We are best friends. I wouldn't bother to lie to spare your feelings. You would have broken his heart. And your grief is NOTHING compared to mine."
I stared at her, not understanding the flood of malice. Sure, she hadn't been very friendly towards me, but I hadn't realized that she hated me so much.
"Mana," Jared said putting his arm around her.
"No, Jared," she said, shaking off his arm. "She's comes out of nowhere and steals his heart, changing him and putting him in danger. And then she dares to think that her pain is somehow more than mine because of an infatuation?"
She stepped towards me as if she wanted to fight. If she wanted to fight, she would beat me to a pulp, and I would let her because I had no spirit left in me.
I felt like my heart had been ripped out.
"Mana," Jared said again, enfolding her in a tight hug.
I buried my face in my hands, crying. After a few minutes, I remembered that he wasn't dead â he was a stranger in a very strange land. And it was our duty as his friends to help him navigate it.
"Hey you guys," I said, glancing over at Dar where he was sitting and watching everything without any reaction. "He's not dead. He's right here."
"He might as well be," Mana said as I walked over to where they were standing close together.
"I know. But let's forget that his mind is missing. And remember that he needs help. He's lost and confused. If we're his friends, then we need to help him deal with it."
Jared's face got a sad look.
"He helped me when I needed it," he said.
Then we walked over to Dar.
"Hey there, my name's Jared," he said.
"We're your friends."
"I'm sorry," Dar said, a baffled look on his face. "But I don't remember you. And I don't know my name to introduce myself."
"Your name is Dar," I said. "And I'm Kenna."
"And this is Mana," Jared said. "You've been mind-wiped, that's why you don't remember anything. I don't want to overwhelm you by telling you too much about yourself too quickly."
"You are an important person on the planet Susohn," Mana said, her eyes devoid of any emotion. "We have been taken captives on a slave ship. I am your Senior Advisor and oldest friend. Jared is your Head of Security. And she..." Mana gave me a dirty look.
"Mana." Jared murmured, frowning at her. Mana turned away and went to the other side of the room, holding her arms clutched tightly around herself.
"Excuse me," he said, following her across the room.
Dar and I watched them go.
"Do you work for me, too?" he said, looking at me with absolutely no recognition in his eyes.
"No," I said. "No. I don't work for you."
"Who are you then?"
"Just..." I tried not to let the tears fall. "Just someone you used to care for."
"We have to convince him to escape with us," Mana said.
Dar had been stubbornly sitting in a corner, confused and frustrated at not being able to remember who he was. He was also wary of us. He had no recollection of us and questioned if we were who we said we were. I guess we could be anybody to him, and we might be trying to trick him.
"Don't we need to have a plan to escape first?" I said. "Did I miss a meeting?"
A guilty look flashed over Jared's face.
"We were tossing around some ideas when you were sleeping, and we think we've come up with something that might work. I forgot we hadn't told you about it. Sorry, Kenna," Jared said, looking a little bit sheepish.
"Oh, that's okay," I said, trying not to feel left out. "You can tell me now. But I don't know how we're going to convince him to come with us. He's pretty confused and upset."
"We'll think of something," Jared said. "If we have to, we'll bop him over the head and drag him with us."
Mana and I both frowned at him.
"Okay, okay," he said, holding up his hands. "It was just a joke."
"Ha, ha," Mana said. "We need to help him trust us and explain why he needs to come."
"How much are we going to tell him?" I said.
They both looked at me in sympathy.
"I don't want to tell him about our relationship," I said, staring down at my boots.
"Why not?" Jared said, looking confused.
"Because I just don't want to."
"She's hoping he's going to remember her spontaneously," Mana said, looking me over.
How had she guessed?
"No, I don't... I mean..."
"Is that even possible?" Jared looked at Mana.
"No one has ever regained their memories after being mind-wiped," Mana said, staring at me even though she was answering Jared's question.
"That's what I thought," Jared said, and he looked at me. "Kenna..."
"I know. It's silly. But I refuse to believe that he's gone. He can't be gone."
Mana rolled her eyes and turned away. Jared didn't say anything but gave me a hug.
"Whether his memory is coming back or not, we have to convince him to go with us. So, let's talk to him," Mana said. Jared and I looked at each other and followed her.
"Hey," she said to Dar. He was sitting and staring off into space. I noticed she avoided using his name.
He turned to look at us but didn't say anything. He had hardly said two words since he returned to us. I hoped he hadn't forgotten his ability to talk.
"Look, Dar," Jared said. "I know you're upset, but we can't be pussy-footing around you, trying to pretend that nothing has happened. What these girls want me to do is crazy."
Mana and I looked at each other.
"You were mind-wiped like we already told you. And who you thought you were is gone."
Dar stared at Jared, his eyes troubled.
"But who you ARE is right here."
I held my breath in shock. Of course, Jared was right. His memories were gone, but he was still here. I could tell that Mana had the same revelation. Dar seemed to be wrapping his head around the idea, too. Jared went on.
"We need to get ourselves and you out of here. I know you don't remember us, but you can trust us. All of us. Mana has known you for years. Kenna and I just met you, but we were your friends." He glanced over at me and then back at Dar.
Dar looked at me for a moment and then back at Jared, obviously trying to understand the undercurrents of the conversation.
"You can trust us. You HAVE to trust us if you're not going to live out the last short years of your life as a slave."
Dar frowned.
"This is a slave ship," Jared continued, feeling that he was gaining momentum. "The aliens will load it up with as many warm bodies as they can. They're going to take us back to their mining planets and force us to mine their minerals for us. If that sounds like a desirable future to you, then I guess we can leave you here. If you'd rather avoid being a slave, then you can come with us. It's up to you."
We all held our breath, waiting for what he would say. He looked down at the floor, not sure whether to trust us or not.
I knelt down beside him.
"Dar?" I said, trying to keep any emotion off my face that might scare him. He looked up and met my eyes and my breath caught in my throat. It was like the night we first met at the party â I couldn't look away. Finally, I found my voice again. "We don't mean you any harm."
He gazed at my face for a long time and then finally he nodded.
"I will come with you," he said. He turned away from us as if those five words exhausted him.
"Good," Jared said, clapping his hands together. "Good. Now we just have to get away."
DAR
The three finally left me alone after I agreed to go with them. I didn't know why the fact that there were three of them seemed significant.
I felt that three was a key number, but I didn't know why.
There were many questions. I had lost everything, but I wasn't sure what I had lost. Apparently I had been someone of importance. And I had friends. Other than that, I knew absolutely nothing about myself.
My life was a clean slate.
I probably would regret losing all of my memories if I could remember what it was I had lost. Jared seemed like a good guy, and Mana was someone dependable.
But that Kenna. I couldn't seem to figure out where she fit.
She intrigued me. When I looked at her before. When she spoke to me. Something happened inside of me. My heart stopped for a moment. I lost my breath. I felt like for a second everything clicked. And in spite of all that had happened to me (which I couldn't remember), it was going to be okay.
Then that flash was gone, and she was some random that I didn't know.
It was confusing.
It made sense to go with them. If I was ever to piece back together my life, I wasn't going to get a chance to do it if I was a slave in some far off galaxy. I wondered what exactly their plan was to get off an impermeable ship that was designed to keep people prisoners.
I had another nap. I was constantly exhausted - I felt like I could sleep for days. When I woke up, the three were talking in the corner. They spoke quietly, but I could hear them perfectly.
"It's perfect because it's simple," Jared said.
"It's perfectly simply stupid," Mana said in a disgusted tone of voice. "We're going to get ourselves mind-wiped or killed. But I can't think of anything better to try."
"Okay, so can you run through it one more time, Jared? You said the shuttle you came in on is still attached to the ship?"
"Yes. Some of the devices embedded in our skin are still functioning. We've determined that our shuttle is still there," Mana said.
"We need to knock over the droids that bring us our food and water and get out the door. We'll grab one of them and make a run for the cell that we entered through â that's only three doors down. We that know because of the device we recovered from Mana's elbow implant."
Kenna glanced at the dirty bandage wrapped around Mana's elbow. If we didn't clean it soon, it would get infected. She ought to take better care of herself, I thought, momentarily forgetting that personal care was probably pretty low on Mana's list of priorities right now.
"How will we get into the other cell?" Kenna asked.
"The droids use fingerprint identification. That's why we'll take either the whole droid or a hand. We'll lock the other droids in this cell."
"Okay, I'm following you so far. We knock over the droids when they bring us our food and water. We use their fingerprints to unlock the door on the other cell. We get inside. And the shuttle is on the other side of the hull. But how do we get to it?" Kenna asked. She sounded like a walking plot summary.
"Imagine the device we removed from her elbow is a souped up Swiss army knife," Jared said, grinning at me. "It has a laser beam that cuts through metal."
"You're kidding me," Kenna said.
"No lie," Jared said, holding up his hands to show his innocence. "We come prepared."
"Mana's right. This plan is stupid and needs a lot of luck. I haven't got any better ideas, so let's get ready."
I stood up. If they were going to enact that ridiculous plan, then I had better get ready, too.
The four of us stood on either side of the door. We were waiting for our food and water. I couldn't believe that we were doing this.
It seemed the height of folly to me, but they had faith that it would work, and I didn't care. For me, there were no consequences. If they caught us and mind-wiped us, I would be in exactly the same boat as I was in before.
Of course, I wouldn't wish a mind-wiping on anyone. It's horribly disconcerting, disorienting, and frankly irritating because I didn't know who I was or anything about the world. The three had only told me bits and pieces about my life. We were waiting to get away and then they would fill me in on everything they had left out.
I hoped.
Jared and I were on one side of the door and Mana and Kenna on the other. We waited silently. The droids should be here any minute.
I glanced over at Kenna. I didn't think she was particularly beautiful. But there was something about her eyes. They captivated me. I felt as though I could get lost in them.
She met my gaze and held it. She didn't speak or move, but I knew she were telling me something in a language that I couldn't understand. It was just out of reach, and it was giving me feelings I couldn't identify.
We stared at each other until my heart was pounding and my breathing coming fast. What was she doing to me? It felt like sorcery.